It’s a set that I’ve considered collecting, started, and stopped multiple times. What is 1941 Goudey baseball? Christie’s offered these nine (as part of a complete set) in October 1992.
Here’s the full description that Christie’s included in the catalog:
Goudey Gum Company’s last set issued. Front features black and white player action photograph with yellow, red, green, or blue backgrounds. Name, team, piston and card number are stated on bottom; blank-backed-excellent to mint.
Despite only having 33 cards, it’s a super tough set to put together; they just don’t come to market very often. Plus, as a collector, you need to decide what you’re trying to do; some people would say the set is 132 cards, each of the 33 players in each of four background color variations. And if you like graded items, PSA has slabbed just >2000 cards across all those combos (that averages to about 15 of each). And if you’re condition-sensitive, good luck; most have awful centering and rough edges.
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It’s amazing to compare the dodgy quality of 1941 Goudey “Big League Gum” (this baseball set) to 1940 Goudey “First Column Defenders” (a full-color military set). First Column Defenders is as professional as anything else they ever produced and this baseball set looks slapped together over a weekend. It’s great evidence of how Goudey’s fortunes changed year-to-year.
GREAT observation…and now I’ve got some research to do.